Edwards' Endorsement Speech Transcript

by: philgoblue

Thu May 15, 2008 at 10:36:12 AM EDT

From The New York Times and CQ Transcripts (I've changed the comments in parantheses):

Thank you, thank you. So, the question is -- thank you. Thank you. So the question is what am I doing here? You know, I was promised a jet ski. And I hadn't gotten it yet. I am proud to be here with all of you, proud to be in Michigan, proud to be in Grand Rapids. During the course of this presidential campaign, I've gotten to know the candidates and the top candidates very, very well. We have all been out speaking about the causes that are so near and dear to our heart as Democrats. And now we're here down to two amazing candidates. And before I get too far, I want to take just a minute and say a word about my friend and your friend, Senator Hillary Clinton.

(Smattering of boos from folks who are in the heat of primary passions and who haven't yet realized that Edwards is here to both praise and bury Hillary and endorse Obama, however, they soon figure it out and these are the last boos we hear during the discussion of Senator Clinton)

In the past few weeks, I've got -- past few months and past few weeks -- I've gotten to know Senator Clinton very well. We've talked. We've met in North Carolina. We've talked about the things that she cares about, that every single one of you care about: about the men and women in this country who don't have health care; about the children who don't have health care; about the men and women in America who just want to have a decent job and go to work. We've talked about our own children, our own families.

And what I've learned during that time, and I've gotten to know her very well, is that she believes with every fiber of our being that America can be a better place, and that we need change to make America what it's capable of being. And I want to tell you -- and I know this is hard to understand sometimes -- but it is very, very hard to get up everyday and do what she's done. It is hard to go out there and fight and speak up when the odds turn against you.

And what she has shown, what she has shown, is strength and character. And what drives her is something that every single one of us can and should appreciate. She cares deeply about the working people in this country. She cares about the families who are losing everything because somebody got sick. She cares about our men and women who are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. This tenacity has shown her strength and her determination. She is a woman who, in my judgment, is made of steel. And she's a leader in this country, not because of her husband, but because of what she has done -- because of speaking out, because of standing up.

(Edwards now moves on to the push for Democratic Party unity -- the reason he hasn't endorsed until now, when the nomination is no longer in reasonable doubt and after most voters have spoken including his fellow North Carolinians who voted for Senator Obama overwhelmingly)

And we, when this nomination battle is over -- and it will be over soon -- brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats and, in the fall, stand up for what matters for the future of America and make America what it needs to be. And we are a stronger party, because Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. We are a stronger country because of her years of public service. And we're going to have a stronger presidential nominee in the fall because of her work.

(Looking back on this primary, I couldn't agree more: Edwards encouraged Obama to get specific about change and hope and Hillary got Obama to show his toughness and determination and they both pushed him to more directly emphasize main street economic issues -- we're going to have a great nominee and a better President Obama because of this long, long primary)

Now, what brought all of us here is the profound --

(Cheers: The crowd knows what is coming, that they are in for a treat and that this rally is suddently major national news)

The rest of the speech on the flip.

What brought all of us together is the profound belief that we can change this country, that there are servicemen and women in Iraq who can come home starting today; that our kids deserve to go to better schools than we went to; that we can run our cars on something other than oil; that we have good jobs that can fill these empty factories; and that the anxiety that all of our people face every day can change when we finally make two Americas one America for every single one of us.

This is why you're here. You're here because of the hope that you carry in your heart to make this country better. And we have so much work to do in America, because all across America, there are walls. There are walls dividing the way things are and the one America that all of us want to see. And, in fact, there's a wall around Washington, D.C. The American people are, today, on the outside of that wall. And on the inside are the big corporations and the lobbyists who are working to protect a system that takes care of them.

And guess who struggles every single day? Working men and women in this country see that wall when they have to split their bills into two piles -- one pay now, one pay later; when they get bullied at work, because they want to join a union; when they see disappointment on the face of their son or daughter, because they can no longer pay for that child to go to college; when their CEO gets a golden parachute, and their job gets shipped overseas. And you know something about that here in Michigan -- when their wages drop and their kids go hungry. And guess who's doing just fine? The insiders, the lobbyists, the special interests.

Our job, come January of next year, is to tear that wall down and give this government back to the American people. There is another wall that divides us. It's the moral shame of 37 million of our own people who wake up in poverty every single day. In a nation of our wealth, to have millions of Americans who work every single day and still can't pay their electric bill and pay for their food at the same time. There are mothers out there working two jobs every day to try to keep their kids from going to bed hungry. There are men and women who have worked hard all their lives, so that they can try to buy a home. And they're living in a tent city, because they got nowhere to go.

This is not OK. And for eight long, long years, this wall has gotten taller. Yesterday, I was in Philadelphia. And I was announcing an initiative to cut poverty in American in half in the next ten years. And I am proud to say, today, that Barack Obama stands with me in this cause. We also have a wall that divides our two public school systems in America. It is not OK that a child born into a wealthy family gets the best education in the world. And a child born in a small town or the inner city barely gets by. Their education is our education. We're going to fix that system for them and make these schools work for everybody.

How about health care, right? The big drugs companies, insurance companies, HMOs, the politicians who take their money, they're getting their way. And they love that wall just the way it is today. Well, it's going to be gone as soon as we create real and meaningful universal health care for every man, woman and child in America.

And there's also a wall that's divided our image in the world. The America as the beacon of hope is behind that wall. And all the world sees now is a bully. They see Iraq, Guantanamo, secret prison and government that argues that water boarding is not torture.

This is not OK. That wall has to come down for the sake of our ideals and our security. We can change this. We can change it. Yes we can. If we stand together, we can change it.

(Cheers. Edwards is skillfully combining the Obama message of outsider change and his message of building One America.  I think it's a message that can lead to a tidal wave in November which will lead to previously unthought of victories accross this land and right here in West Michigan)

And the reason I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I. There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change, that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two. And that man is Barack Obama.

(The crowd went wild!)

This is not going to be easy. It's going to be the fight of our lives. But we're ready, because we know that this election is about something bigger than the tired old hateful politics of the past. This election is about taking down these walls that divide us, so that we can see what's possible -- what's possible, that one America that we can build together. Barack Obama understands that to his core.

You know, as I've traveled this country, as I've learned from traveling this country, from talking to students like those that we took to New Orleans, who volunteered their spring break to go to New Orleans to work to help rebuild the city; a former Army captain that I met who served two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, even after he was badly injured at a grenade attack. And I'll never forget a man I met named James Lowe who was born with a cleft palate that kept him from being able to speak. And he had no health care coverage and lived for 50 years in America not able to speak, because he had no health care.

What I've learned, and what Barack Obama has learned, this campaign is about them. It is about you. It is about the people. It is not about us. And that is what we are fighting for.

(Applause.)

And it's about the one America we're going to build for them. One America, where Main Street is strong; one America, where struggling towns come back to life, because we finally transformed our economy by ending our dependence on oil; one America, where the men and women who work the late shift, who get up at dawn to drive a two- hour commute, and the young person who closes the store to save for college. They will actually be honored for that work. One America, where no child, no child, goes to bed hungry; when we finally end the moral shame of 37 million Americans who wake up every day in poverty.

(Applause.  Here's the one complaint I've always had with Edwards rhetoric -- he should use "us" rather than "them")

One America, where we finally start tackling the real health care crisis in America; one America, with one public school system, where a boy in the city and a girl in the suburbs will wake up every day with an equal chance to a quality education. One America, that rebuilds our moral authority in the world, not just with our strength, but with our soul. One America, where the walls will fall, when the war in Iraq ends in 2009, and our servicemen and women --

(Stormy Applause)

And our servicemen and women will come home to the heroes' welcome that they deserve. And we will take care of our veterans. We're going to get this part of the war right. We will never again stand by while men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States of America stand in line and have to wait for health care. We will never stand by while 150,000 men and women who wore our uniform, veterans, go to sleep every night on grates and under bridges -- not in our America, not in our America, and not in our America when Barack Obama is president of the United States of America.

(Stormy Applause)

You know, we've been in this kind of place before. In times of war, great depression, deep divisions that tore at the soul of this nation, we came together. And we went to work to make sure that we passed on a stronger and better country to our children. We will meet this challenge again. This is who we are. This is our moment. This is our time to take down these walls, to close our divide, and build one America that we all believe in. If you want that, if you believe in that, then join me in helping send Barack Obama to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; because we believe that in our America --

(Crowd goes wild.  This is Edwards at his best.  Our time is now, we live at a 1932 moment when the Americans of today can transform the county and set it on a course for the next 50-100 years)

Because what all of us believe, what all of us believe, is in this America that we love so much, no matter who you are, no matter who your family is, and no matter what the color of your skin, none of those things will control your destiny; and that that one America that I've talked about is not only possible, but it will be achieved under President Barack Obama starting in January of 2009. Thank you. God bless you. I'm honored to be here with you. Thank you, all.

(Wild cheers. Thanks Senator Edwards, it was great having you in Grand Rapids, hope to see you again real soon)

Photos by wizzardkitten